


matching wavelengths

by Faye_Reynolds



Series: tumblr au prompts [27]
Category: Generation Kill
Genre: College!AU, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-16
Updated: 2018-01-16
Packaged: 2019-03-05 14:07:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13389414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Faye_Reynolds/pseuds/Faye_Reynolds
Summary: frommy tumblr post





	matching wavelengths

**Author's Note:**

> from [my tumblr post](http://thecompanyofheroes.co.vu/post/162739738593/bradray-collegeau-ray-didnt-believe-in-love)

ray didn’t believe in love at first sight, but damn it if the world wasn’t testing him. in his four years at the university, he’s never seen anyone like the man that he saw walking across campus. tall,  _really_  fucking tall, blonde hair, built like a tank, and when they made eye contact he swore the man felt the same charge he did. and ray? ray was in love. in possible every sense of the word. the man looked at him again, but then he kept walking. ray wanted to chase after the guy,  _needed_  to chase after him, there was something that  _compelled_  him to go. this was the the nth time he’d seen this guy and everytime he’d just miss him. unfortunately, his class had run over and he was late for work at the local radio station. as he got comfortable in the booth, a thought came to him and he laughed into his intro. if he couldn’t find the, quite possible, love of his life, maybe the love of his life would find him. ray doesn’t think about it, has never really thought the consequences of his actions, but the results of his actions lead to something he never imagined.

* * *

 

ray looked at walt who was shaking his head, but signalling ray’s intro anyway.

he didn’t care if walt thought this was a bad idea, at least it was an idea. walt had offered nothing in return while ray went on and on about the guy he saw.

“ray, i get it. the guy is hot. doesn’t mean you’re in love.”

ray looked intensely at walt, eye narrowing, “he isn’t just hot walt. he’s more than that.”

walt saw how serious ray was, for once nothing but sincerity in his expression, “how do you know?”

ray shrugged and put on his atrocious black and gold sunglass, “i just know.” and went into the booth.

he laughed as the familiar sounds flowed into his ears through the headphones.

“hey everybody! how we doin’? good? alright you guys before we get you all rockin’ and rollin’ like pimps, i have to be honest, i need your help. i’ve seen this guy on campus for the past couple of months. looks like a damn viking, i swear. he’s tall, blonde hair, and blue eyes and he was wearing a black shirt today. not the most specific description, but bear with me, i swear this guy is the one. homes, if any of you saw him or know him, call in. no joke, you guys are the best and i really need your help. okay now with all my beautiful gay shit out of the way, let’s get started with some presley.”

ray queued “i’m all shook up” and smiled when he saw walt roll his eyes and throw his hands into the air.

* * *

nate listened to the radio in the car, waiting for brad to get out of class so they could start their project for military strategies.

_“…looked like a damn viking…tall, blonde hair, and blue eyes and he was wearing a black shirt.”_

nate thought it kind of sounded like brad, but there’s no way.

just then he saw brad walking down the stairs of the history building and choked. he was wearing a black shirt today.

“ _ray…_ no fucking way!” he shouted.

he started laughing and didn’t stop until they were on the road and brad asked him, “why the fucking are you laughing like that?” 

nate just shrugged and smiled.

“nothing, how were your classes today?”

“fine.” brad said, clipped. normally he’d be going on a rant about the institution that he was attending and how it’s systematically destroy capitalism or some other tangent.

“what’s on your mind?” nate asked casually, like he wasn’t fishing for information, even though brad knew he was.

“nothing.”

“ _brad.”_

 _“_ i saw that guy on campus again today and i don’t know, something happened. it’s weird. everything about it is so fucking weird.”

nate nodded and the two drove as the radio played ‘complicated’ by avril lavigne.

when he heard brad singing along gently, he smiled.

nate wished he could rewind the radio, instead he took the longest way possible to their library, stopping for coffee, in hopes that someone would call and brad could hear it.

* * *

so far, they had no luck. six calls in twenty minutes and none of them panned out.

walt chimed in his ear, “ray i think this might be the real deal. line 3.”

ray answered and hit record just in case.

“this is ray ray wattup homes?”

“yeah i know exactly who you’re talking about.”

“okay, wanna be a little less vague man?” 

“look, he’ll be at the library until ten tonight.” 

“okay, you sound like a psycho, but thanks for trying man.”

“i’m not joking. his name is brad and he’ll be there, i promise you.”

the man hung up and ray laughed when walt put his fists in the air, more happy that ray would do his job rather than if he found the guy he hasn’t shut up about.

walt queued him in again after another song finished.

“thanks for all the help everyone! i think i found something legit. thank you caller number seven. now it’s 7:30 everyone, so for the next half hour, you know what that means!”

ray queued a shuffled selection of one direction and left the booth for his break.

walt met him in the hallway and laughed as ray shoved an entire candy bar in his mouth.

“you’re a real catch, person.”

ray smiled, chocolate covering his teeth and dripping out of his mouth.

“fanks falt” ray attempted to say.

he chugged a bottle of water and waited for walt to say whatever he was waiting to say.

“so what’re you gonna do ray?”

“i’m gonna do what i always do hassler, fuck everything up.”

walt smiled and nodded, “good. so long as we’re all on the same page.”

* * *

nate hung up the phone just as brad was getting back into the car.

“they didn’t have that gay mineral shit you drink so i grabbed regular water because you should have some sort of balls when it comes to your choice in beverage.”

nate laughed and pulled out of the gas station, “for someone who’s gay, you use that adjective a lot.”

brad smiled as he looked out the window, “yeah, because i know what gay is and mineral water is gay as shit, nate.”

nate just laughed more and turned up the radio.

brad groaned and tried to change it but nate slapped his hand away.

“i hate this guy, he talks too much.”

nate choked on the water he was trying to drink.

brad slapped him on the back a couple times.

“what’s with you today man?”

“n-nothing,” nate gasped. 

they pulled into the library just as ’what makes you beautiful’ started playing.

nate hoped he was right about this, if not he would just end up seeing his two best friends hurt.

* * *

ray’s shift ended around nine and it took him thirty minutes to get back to campus because of construction, ten to find a parking spot, and five to make it into the library.

“we close in fifteen minutes,” the uninterested receptionist said without looking up from her magazine.

“yeah i know, i’m not a fucking idiot.”

she looked up, appalled, but ray was already halfway down the hall.

so ray was here, and apparently this brad guy was too. the only problem was that there nine fucking floors and the library was huge. caller seven could’ve at least said where he was going to be.

“fuck!” 

some people at a table nearby shushed him and he held his middle finger up as he walked away.

he sighed, defeated and went outside to smoke and call walt.

“no luck, man. did you know the library was a fucking mansion?”

“did you look on the other floors?”

“no.”

“ray!”

“look walt disney, he probably wasn’t even here. the caller was probably just some fucking prick playing a joke.”

“ray person, you get your gay ass in there and find this guy. i’m not gonna listen to you for the next month whining.”

“but-”

“just go!”

walt hung up abruptly and ray cursed, stubbed out his cigarette and moved to go back inside.

he was checking his phone when he opened the door and didn’t see the someone was walking out.

he crashed into the other person and it felt like he hit a brick wall.

not looking up he yelled, “fuck! watch where you’re fucking walking man.”

“me? you’re too busy looking at your phone to notice someone was fucking walking out.”

ray looked up as the other man looked down and both of their hearts skipped a beat.

“you!” the both said simultaneously.

the stared at one another, both feeling something powerful, but neither knowing what to say. 

“i-” ray started but some opened the door on the other side of him and it knocked him into brad.

“you’re a clumsy piece of shit, aren’t you?” brad asked, not heat in his words, just an odd fondness.

ray looked up to see a bright smile on brad’s face.

“what can i say, bradley? i guess i’m falling for you.” 

in that moment, ray remembered that grandmother always used to say that his mouth moved faster than the speed of light. he assumed she meant that no one could ever catch up, but this time it included himself and he, for once in his light, cursed himself for not thinking before he spoke.

luckily or unluckily, nate chose that moment to interrupt.

“brad the printer in there is fubared, i’ll just print it at my apart-oh…ray….brad…am i interrupting something?”

ray assumed they paint quite the picture. brad was holding onto ray’s arms, tightly if ray was to say anything about it, and ray’s hands were on brad’s broad, warm chest. 

brad pushed ray away, harshly, and said, “no.” 

he turned and walked down the stairs like he hadn’t just broken ray’s heart.

nate waited until brad was far enough away before he turned to ray, “you okay?”

“you?! it was fucking you! and you knew? and let me come here like a fucking idiot?”

nate flinched at ray’s angered passion.

“ray, li-”

“no nate! i thought i could fucking trust you and then you pull this? christ i’ve been talking about this guy for so fucking long and you knew how i felt and you knew the whole fucking time? fuck you nate!” 

ray ran down the stairs as fast as he could.

“ray!” nate tried, but his friend was gone…possibly for good.

“fuck!” 

the group from the table had walked out and gasped at his outburst.

“fuck off,” he shouted at them and walked back to his car.

* * *

brad was miserable, he’d, quite literally, pushed away the guy that had been tormenting him for months. he fucked up and he didn’t know why he did what he did.

ray was miserable. he knew he’d fuck things up, like he always did. he just didn’t expect nate, of all people, to fuck him over. 

nate was miserable. mostly because his two best friends were miserable and because ray wouldn’t talk to him. he needed a plan, he needed…he needed walt!

“hey hass, it’s me. listen, what do you think about a party?”

“i think it’s a word. what are you talking about?”

“look i know ray is probably driving you mad with the moping, right?”

“like you would not believe. do you know how many times i’ve had to listen to my heart will go on?”

nate laughed.

“it’s not funny nate! it’s not even the real version! it’s an instrumental and ray sings the whole thing!”

nate laughed harder, “look things aren’t good on my end either. brad won’t talk to anyone and he just stares out the window like a lost puppy. he hasn’t said a single word to me since last week. i don’t know what’s gotten into him.”

walt sighed, “alright look i’ll talk to ray and you talk to brad and we’ll talk tonight and see what’s up. if all else fails, we throw a party and lock them in a room together because our lives are jokes.”

* * *

nate found brad where he’d been for the past week, in the chair by the front window, staring outside.

“brad, i know you don’t want to talk, but for it’s been a fucking week. tell me what’s going on.”

brad stared at nate for a long time before looking back out the window and asking nate something he’d never thought brad would ask.

“do you believe in love at first sight?”

nate smiled, “yeah i do.”

“don’t smile. it’s a fucking curse, nate.”

nate frowned, “so you’re in love?”

brad sighed, “i think so, but i fucked it up. it’s weird, ray’s not even my type. like he’s somehow the furthest thing from my type, but i’m drawn to him regardless.”

nate struggled for a response, he wasn’t used to brad being so open. hell, half the time he wasn’t sure brad was feeling  _anything_  beside annoyance and tolerance. for brad to talk to him like this, it had to be serious to him.

“so…what do you want to do about it?”

“something. fuck, nothing. i don’t fucking know.”

nate was curious, brad might shut down if he pushed too hard, but he had to try.

“brad, when you think about ray, how do you feel?”

brad was silent for a long time, so long that nate didn’t think he’d answer.

brad whispered, “happy.”

nate smiled, “good. now i have a plan.”

brad rolled his eyes, “your plans never fucking work nate. their snafued before they even start.”

“yeah well half the time it’s because none of you ever fucking listen to me.”

brad smiled and nate was relieved that they were finally getting somewhere.

* * *

the part at walt’s apartment was in full swing. music blasting, people dancing, and laughing was heard all around.

ray sat in a corner by the window and ignored all of it. 

walt had tried to talk to him about brad, but ray didn’t say one word, just told him to fuck off and would leave the room.

walt was keeping an eye on his friend when his phone buzzed.

_nate: we’re almost there. is he there?_

_walt: yeah he’s moping in the corner. you sure this’ll work?_

_nate: i hope. but it’ll probably be a disaster because brad colbert is acting like a nervous teenager and driving like a madman. we’ll mostly likely be dead by the end of the night._

_walt: good thing there’s plenty of booze._

* * *

nate and brad walked up to the third floor and to walt’s door.

nate knocked when he heard brad swear.

“what is it?”

“i can’t do this.”

brad turned his back on nate, but didn’t walk away.

“ _brad_.”

brad spoke without turning around.

“no this isn’t something i do, nate. i can’t look at him without feeling like a fucking schoolgirl, okay?”

“ _b-brad.”_

“i’ve barely spoke three sentences to ray and some part of me knows him like the back of my hand and i can’t get him out of my head.”

_“BRAD.”_

“and it freaks me the fuck out because how do you tell someone, you’ve never really met, that you love them? and i fucking love him.”

“ _BRAD!”_

brad turned around and his heart stopped.

* * *

walt heard a knock at the door but was “in the middle of something” and asked ray to get it.

ray sighed and went to open the door, surprised to see nate there, but even more surprised to hear someone yelling in the hall.

nate’s eyes widened and he tried to get brad’s attention.

_“…i can’t look at him without feeling like a fucking schoolgirl, okay?”  
_

he tried again.

_“…i can’t get him out of my head.”  
_

and again.

_“…i fucking love him.”_

and the last time worked.

* * *

brad stared at ray, whose jaw had nearly hit the floor.

ray stared at brad, who looked like he was about to run away and never come back.

nate looked at the two of them with fondness, “i’m just gonna…i gotta…beer.”

he pushed ray out of the way and slammed and locked the door.

neither man spoke, just awkwardly stared at one another.

ray spoke first, “hi.”

brad released a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding.

“hi.”

ray laughed, “well this is the most ridiculous gay shit i’ve been a part of and i’ve done some gay shit let me tell you.”

he was rambling, like usual, but it did the job. brad laughed and stepped a little closer to ray.

then he asked ray the most ridiculous question.

“do you drink mineral water?”

ray scoffed, “i said i’m gay man, not fucking weird.”

brad laughed and moved closer to ray, effective pinning him to the door.

for a long moment they just looked at one another, still feeling that same pull they’d first felt months ago, only this time is was much, much stronger.

“can i kiss you?” brad asked awkwardly, but he needed to know ray was on the same page.

“what the fuck else do you think i want you to do?”

brad smiled, smug and satisfied before he leaned in and kiss ray within an inch of his life.

* * *

walt groaned, it was the third day in a row, and ray would not stop playing love songs.

“well gang, that’s a wrap on tonight. i guess i can tell you that your old pal ray ray is officially off the market. in love and gay as hell. my mother would be moderately proud. bradley, this one is for you baby.”

ray queued ‘teenage dirtbag’ and smiled when brad came into the booth.

“that’s the most romantic thing anyone has ever done for me.”

ray smiled, “really?”

“no. now get the fuck up, we both have two days off and i plan on spending the next 48 hours fucking you on every available surface.”

ray groaned, “god i love you.”

brad smiled, the one that told ray everything he needed to know.

“i love you too, shithead.”

…but sometimes he enjoyed hearing it too.


End file.
